1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to an apparatus suitable for cooperation with a cassette provided with magnetic tape, which apparatus includes tape-transport means for the transport of the magnetic tape in the longitudinal direction, a magnetic-head unit having a housing, a magnetic head arranged in the housing for reading and/or writing information on magnetic tape and having at least one transducing gap and a head face in which a gap end of the transducing gap is situated, and two tape guides, each at one side of the transducing gap and each having a guide surface.
The invention also relates to a magnetic-head unit and to a magnetic head for use in such apparatus, and to a housing suitable for use in the magnetic-head unit.
The invention further relates to a method of manufacturing a magnetic-head unit comprising a housing and a magnetic head, which method comprises the following steps: manufacturing the housing provided with tape guides and height guides, manufacturing the magnetic head provided with at least one transducing gap and a head face, positioning the magnetic head in the housing, causing a gap plane through the transducing gap to be oriented perpendicularly to a connecting line between the height guides, and affixing the magnetic head in the housing.
2. Description of the Prior Art
An apparatus, a magnetic-head unit and a method of the type defined above are known from U.S. Pat. No. 4,926,278, herewith incorporated by reference). For the reproduction of information recorded on a magnetic tape it is desirable that the position of the transducing gap of the magnetic head relative to the magnetic tape is the same as during the process in which this information has been recorded on the magnetic tape. If this position is not the same this will result in signal loss during information reading. Moreover, it is desirable that the position of the magnetic tape relative to the magnetic head is the same for each apparatus. This is in order to ensure that a recording made on one apparatus can be reproduced without signal loss by means of another apparatus.
During the recording or reproduction of information on/from a magnetic tape by means of this known apparatus the magnetic tape always occupies the same position relative to the magnetic head. In the known apparatus the correct position of the magnetic tape relative to the magnetic head is obtained in that during tape transport the magnetic tape is guided by two tape guides of the magnetic-head unit and one tape edge of the magnetic tape is held in contact with height guides of the magnetic-head unit. This accurately defines the position of the magnetic tape relative to the magnetic-head unit. Since the magnetic head is accurately positioned relative to the height guides in the magnetic-head unit this accurately defines the position of the magnetic tape relative to the magnetic head. When the magnetic head is positioned in the magnetic-head unit the transducing gap of the magnetic head should be adjusted not only in a plane parallel to a plane tangent to the tape guides but also in a direction perpendicular to this tangent plane. A drawback of this is that the positioning means required for this purpose should be movable in many directions and rotatable about many axes, so that intricate and therefore expensive position means are needed.